


Twelve Days of Christmas

by Annerp



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 12 Days of Christmas, M/M, One Shot, Secret Relationship, Short One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, frostshield - Freeform, stoki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 19:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17147630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annerp/pseuds/Annerp
Summary: The days leading up to Christmas are busy for Steve Rogers.





	Twelve Days of Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas! Here's a bit of holiday fluff.

 

 

 

 

12 Days of Christmas

 

On the 1st day of Christmas

Steve has a day off. An actual honest to goodness day off. With no Avenger business, no meetings, nothing to occupy Steve’s time. A day off to relax and draw and just be. He can’t hardly believe it. It’s been too long since he was able to leisurely lay in bed, not a care in the world except where he was going to grab lunch on the way to the park. 

Turns out, that was an easy decision and now Steve is walking down the street carrying a bag from the deli on the corner, with a satchel full of drawing supplies slung over his shoulder. He heads directly to his favorite bench and pulls out his lunch. 

He eats happily and then waits, observing the people walking by. Waiting, watching. Looking for the one person who catches his eye. The one that will inspire his artists mind. It’s a beautiful day, despite the chill and there are quite a few people in the park, but none pay any attention to the blonde man wearing dark sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled down low to cover part of his face. No one notices the way he scans the crowds.

Humming to himself, Steve sits up a little taller when he see’s someone walking in his general direction. Someone that his hands itch to draw. He grins and pulls his sketch book and pencils out of his bag.

By the time Steve heads back home, he has several drawings and can’t quite contain the smile on his face. His evening is just as good, with a wonderful dinner, followed by some reading, while his favorite record plays in the background. 

And now, as he lays on his back, staring at the ceiling, listening to the sound of his breathing and the beat of his heart, Steve is still smiling as he drifts off to sleep thinking about how his good day turned into an even better night.

 

On the 2nd day of Christmas

Steve flops down on his couch and presses an ice pack to the side of his left eye. He winces at the cold and groans. Why is it always like this? The Avengers get the call for a disturbance at the Smithsonian and so they go. Based on the illusions running around in front of the building, causing general chaos, Steve is fairly sure he knows who is behind it all.

As soon as he made his way inside, he knew he was right. He finds Loki exiting the area where the Captain America display is located. 

“What are you doing here Loki?” Steve questions as he circles the god slowly.

The answer is smooth, teasing, with a hint of something else that Steve can’t quite identify. “I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

Loki attacks without warning, if half heartedly. And Steve isn’t surprised to hear the sound of Iron Man’s repulsors behind him. Steve never did figure out what Loki wanted at the museum. He's just glad the bruising around his eyes should be mostly gone by morning. He only wishes that he hadn’t been hit in the face with debris when Tony tried to blast Loki, just before the god disappeared. 

And now, here he sits, back in his apartment, with 2 black eyes. 

 

On the 3rd day of Christmas 

Steve has a broom and is sweeping up broken glass and chunks of metal. It's every where for 3 blocks where a bunch of doom bots dropped out of the sky and attacked a bank. The fight was won easily. Suspiciously easy. Steve usually stays to clean up after a battle unless he's injured, but he's tired and just wants to go home and curl up in his bed. 

When the area is finally cleaned up enough for traffic to resume, he calls it a day and goes home. Steve wants nothing more than to take a shower and fall into bed. The way the lights are dimmed, the comforting smells and familiar warmth coupled with a nice long shower, have relaxed Steve to the point where he drifts off to sleep in no time.

 

On the 4th day of Christmas 

Steve fights the crowds at a shopping center near the mall. Parking is a nightmare and once again he is thankful for bringing his motorcycle instead of the car. He only really needs to buy one last thing, but there are just so many people. Frustrated shoppers, crying children. He wouldn’t have dreamed of even going out if it wasn’t so important. 

After finding a spot to park, he pulls his hat down low and makes his way towards his target. He cracks a smile when he realizes he is almost sneaking through the shopping center as though on a stealth mission. He certainly doesn’t want to be recognized here or he’ll never get home.

It takes 4 hours from the time he leaves his apartment to when he is finally back home. But he feels good, happy. He can hardly wait until Christmas. He expects this will be the best one ever.

 

On the 5th day of Christmas

Steve spends the day with Tony, Natasha, Clint and Bruce. The 5 of them are making an appearance at a children’s hospital. He feels an unsettling combination of accomplishment and sadness as he poses for pictures with the children and their families. By the time they are ready to leave, Steve’s heart positively aches and he tells himself that he won’t go next time, even though he already knows he will. 

He isn’t ashamed to admit that he shed a few tears as later that night, he recalled some of the children and their illnesses.

 

On the 6th day of Christmas

Steve wraps up his gifts and delivers 6 brightly colored packages to Stark Tower. His plan is to spend Christmas at his apartment, so he wanted to make sure his team, along with Pepper get their presents. 

He ends up staying for dinner and its late by the time he is stripping off his clothes in preparation for bed. The room is chilled and Steve climbs under the covers and shifts around until he is warm and content.

 

On the 7th day of Christmas 

Steve saves a family from a house fire. He was in the right place at the right time and was able to get all 7 of them out safely. The fire department acted quickly and was able to keep the home from being a total loss, but the family would be displaced for the foreseeable future. Not to mention the items they did lose in the fire. 

A quick call to Tony and the family was set up in one of the many apartments Tony owns and the billionaire even sent several members of his staff with a Stark Industries credit card to shop for the family. When Steve finally left, the parents were making a list of necessities and also a list of the Christmas presents that had been destroyed.

 

On the 8th day of Christmas

Steve spends 8 hours at Shield headquarters. Its almost Christmas and there isn’t a lot to do except finish some reports. It’s boring but necessary. He skims over his emails and meets with Nick Fury before calling in an order for dinner to pick up on the way home. 

Dinner is eaten sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, while wearing pajamas. It’s nice and Steve can’t help but smile.  


 

On the 9th day of Christmas

Steve ends up paying $9 for 2 cups of coffee to take back to his apartment. He still can’t believe how ridiculous the price is, no matter how good the holiday flavored drink is supposed to be. Luckily the coffee shop isn’t far and the drinks are still warm when he gets home. 

He sets both cups on the kitchen counter, pulls off his jacket and gloves and starts to make breakfast. He has to head in to Shield for a few hours, but after that he plans on curling up in front of the fire and binge watching a bunch of Christmas movies. 

He may even stop on his way home and pick up a couple more of those coffee’s.  


 

On the 10th day of Christmas 

It snows overnight and Steve doesn’t make it in to work until 10am. He fully took advantage of the opportunity to sleep in and eat breakfast in bed. It was wonderful. So much so, that Steve briefly considered calling in and spending a few more hours in bed. 

In the end, he did get up and he did go in to work. Even if he absolutely didn’t want to. He spends the day counting down the hours until he can get back home.

 

On the 11th day of Christmas 

Steve has to get 11 stitches. That's what it took to close up the gash across his neck. He was lucky, the doctor said. It could have been fatal, just another couple of inches to the right. 

One minute he was standing outside a coffee shop and the next he was being tackled by The Abomination. He had just left the shopping center and wasn't in his uniform and didn't have his shield. There were so many civilians around, he tried to keep the fight as far away from people as he could, tried to draw his attacker out towards the street. But even on his best day with his gear, Steve is no match for The Abomination, and he knows it. He fights though, grabbing a metal pipe to defend himself. 

He fights and hopes that help comes in time because he doesn't think he can dodge every blow aimed at him, no matter how much faster he is. Getting frustrated, Blonsky picks up a trash bin and hurls it at a terrified young woman huddling with a child at the end of the street.

Steve moves without thinking, desperately hoping to get to them in time even though he knows he will be too late. The flash of green light that surrounds the mother and child startles Steve enough to draw him up short. Unfortunately, it is also enough to distract him so that The Abomination can run full speed at him, flinging his body into a wall. It hurts, jarring Steve’s bones and rattling his teeth. 

But he knows he's had worse, even if his scrambled brain can't think of an example at that moment. He can feel blood running down his neck, pooling at the collar of his button down shirt, underneath his winter coat. Absently he swipes his hand through it as he watches Blonsky get up from where he is inexplicably laying in a heap in the street. 

When The Abomination moves towards Steve again, he knows he needs to get up, needs to get away, needs to make sure that woman and her child are safe. But he cant. When he looks down he can see that his once cream colored shirt is now red and he dimly wonders if it will come clean in the wash. Steve tries to push himself up to his feet, clinging feebly to the wall behind him. He knows he can't take another hit. 

For a moment, he doesn't understand when his vision blinks out and there is nothing but black. And then green. And then a voice. 

"Stay down. Your friends will be here soon." 

His vision is filled with a green glow and a silhouette. 

"I can only do so much before they arrive." 

The warm feeling that spreads over Steve’s rib cage, through his left leg and across his cheek bone into the back of his aching head is so comforting that Steve must have drifted off to sleep, because he wakes up in a hospital with a neat row of 11 stitches and miraculously healed breaks in his leg and 3 of his ribs. 

His head hurts a little but he is told that the skull fracture he suffered was also almost completely healed. The Doctor wants to keep him for a few days. Just for observation they say. He relents, but only for 1 night. Tomorrow is Christmas after all.

 

On the 12th day of Christmas 

Steve is restless. Has been all morning. Anxious to leave Stark Tower. It's not like he doesn't like Tony. He will admit that the man drives him up the wall at times, but he has a good heart. 

It wasn't necessary to invite Steve over to celebrate the holiday with him and Pepper, but he did. And how could Steve refuse, really, without bringing up a lot of issues that he just didn’t want to deal with right now. And Steve will readily admit he is pleased with the sketch books and high quality art supplies Tony got for him. 

When he is finally able to convince Tony that he was tired and needed to go home, the man has him driven in a car so expensive that Steve dosn’t even want to think about it. 

Steve takes a deep breath and checks his pockets, before pulling out his house key and opening the door to his apartment. A vase filled with fresh flowers sits on the dining room table and he grins at the site. Next to the flowers is a flat box, delicately wrapped in blue paper with an intricately tied red ribbon. 

There is a small card on top reading, “open me.” Glancing around self consciously, he sets down his new art supplies and picks up the box. Its light, feels like it could be empty. Curiosity peaked, he carefully pulls on one of the ribbon ends, letting it fall free to the table. 

Lifting an edge of the paper, Steve unwraps the gift and lifts the lid. And now he knows what was going on at the Smithsonian last week. He carefully lifts the letters, yellowed with time. 12 of them. Hand written in a scrawl that he could never forget, signed simply, “Bucky”.

His head falls forward with a soft gasp of air, one hand coming up to rub at his suddenly burning eyes. These letters were not part of the public display. He was certain they had been lost forever after he went into the ice, but here they are. 

Behind him there is a whisper of sound, almost too soft to hear, and then a warmth that spreads across his back as 2 arms snake around his mid section. 

Reluctantly, he pulls away as his hand goes into his pocket, gripping the velvet box concealed there. He had planned on waiting until later that night, but he knows with certainty that this is the perfect moment. Pulling out the box, he turns and slides down to one knee, “Loki….”

 

 


End file.
